Night Terrors

[Jen-1984]

Does anyone experience this along with being celiac? I have very vivid dreams, I don't think I am breathing that great during sleep, but I did a sleep study not long ago and the doctor said I had mild sleep apnea and that he wasn't going to treat it. My dreams like I said are very vivid and I wake up shaking, and feeling scared. I also notice at night I get bad stomach cramping. Can anyone relate?

[mushroom]

Oh yes! I have a sleep disorder, too, and used to have very vivid dreams while I was still eating gluten. Not so much any more. Except for when they put me in an induced coma, and I think then my brain was crying out for stimulation so it created its own It took my husband weeks to convince me that some of those things just did NOT happen!! They were so real and some of them pretty scary....

Plus, the gluten always gave me extreme bloating, cramping and belching at night, with racing heart.

[Jen-1984]

Thanks for your reply, it makes me feel so much better having others to talk to and relate with here. I hate the way my sleep has been effected. Six years ago at the onset of my symptoms, I couldnt sleep no matter how hard I tried. I went two days without sleep. My symptoms have not only been gastro related but so many neuroligical symptoms. Like tingling, burning in hands and feet, vision problems, seizure like issues, feeling clumsy. Anyways, I cant believe how celuac can effect people, if that is what I have and I highly suspect it, because I have been tested for everything under the sun and the only positive result was the dgp igg. Anyways, enough of my rambling.

[ButterflyChaser]

My ex was celiac and had the worst sleeping disorder I have ever seen. I now think he had night terrors, but he seemed to have never given that a thought, even if he described that "nightmare" weight on his chest. He screamed and sometimes even hit me when that happened. I would retreat to the farthest corner of the bed and mostly spend the nights awake because I feared that I would move if I fell asleep, and then he would jump at me because it was fault he had woken up in terror. It scared the hell out of me.

That said, that guy had other serious issues that might have caused his nightmares; regardless of his medical condition, he was not a good person. Glad it's over.

[Dugudugu]

I would suggest to try to sleep with a cpap machine after all. Your AHI might be low, but with these complains, if you were my patient, I'd sure give it a try with a cpap device. Maybe you can rent a machine instead of buying? Sleep apnea = sleep apnea. Mild or severe, sleep is disturbed too much times than is good for you.

[mushroom]

I should probably add that I now sleep with supplemental oxygen since neither CPAP nor BiPAP worked for me since I also have COPD and could not breathe out against the pressure of the machines and my blood gases ended up all out of whack.

[GottaSki]

I slept walked my entire childhood -- or so I'm told.

Son, Daughter and Grandson all have horrible - wake up screaming terrors (thankfully they don't remember it the next day).

Scary stuff.

[Jen-1984]

I think at this point a CPAP machine would probably help me. I wish my doctor wasn't such a hard guy to convince of things. And regarding the sleep walk thing, I did that all the time as a kid and had very disturbed sleep patterns along with screaming in my sleep. I would not remember any of it. My parents would just tell me about it the next day and act pretty freaked out. Hahaha.

[Jen-1984]

One other thing I thought I would mention is that there are times when I feel also very dizzy right when I wake up and actually if I wake up too abruptly and get up, like to check on an upset child I pass out, and have done this a couple of times. It doesn't happen often but has happened a couple of times.

[anonymous-123]

i decided to this detox/cleanse that i thought would help to clean out my gut of gluten and instead it made me worse even though it said gluten free on the box. anyway, the four days i was using the product i was having intense nightmares. i stopped using the product 2 days ago. so i'm assuming gluten or anything else your tummy doesn't like could give you nightmares.

[mushroom]

Oh yes. The vagal nerve is the connection between the gut and the brain. Pressure on the vagus nerve can cause you to faint, as from bloating -- been there, done that, numerous times.

[anonymous-123]

Oh yes. The vagal nerve is the connection between the gut and the brain. Pressure on the vagus nerve can cause you to faint, as from bloating -- been there, done that, numerous times.

extemely interesting...i had never known this before. this explains why i probably always feel faint! especially after that darn detox thing i tried. i actually left work early today b/c i told my boss i felt faint. everything i am reading on this forum is really helpful! it's all making sense now.

[Dugudugu]

@mushroom. Have your bpap settings been correct? Depending which brand the flowgenerator is, the service provider can adjust the settings to a longer exhalation time, and of course, a lower pressure. As you'll probably know copd-ers need more time to exhalate. The Resmed units allow a pretty long exhalation time. Good thing though the O2 works for you.

[mushroom]

@mushroom. Have your bpap settings been correct? Depending which brand the flowgenerator is, the service provider can adjust the settings to a longer exhalation time, and of course, a lower pressure. As you'll probably know copd-ers need more time to exhalate. The Resmed units allow a pretty long exhalation time. Good thing though the O2 works for you.

They had to put the settings to 23/18 in order to accomplish saturation to their satisfaction during my sleep study. The day following I vomited and had diarrhea most of the day - haven't been that sick in a long time, even with gluten. So I was definitely not interested in pursuing that avenue of unwellbeing. They took my blood gases before the study, but they should have taken them after the study.

[shadowicewolf]

What about those falling type dreams? Would those count? Holy cow, between those and waking up and not being able to move (sleep paralisis?) its a wonder i got any sleep. I don't get the sleep paralisis ones anymore (yay!), i still, on a very rare occasion get the falling ones. I would wake up from one feeling like my heart was about to leap out of my chest. Not to mention the falling jitters... eeek....

[anonymous-123]

What about those falling type dreams? Would those count? Holy cow, between those and waking up and not being able to move (sleep paralisis?) its a wonder i got any sleep. I don't get the sleep paralisis ones anymore (yay!), i still, on a very rare occasion get the falling ones. I would wake up from one feeling like my heart was about to leap out of my chest. Not to mention the falling jitters... eeek....

the sleep paralisis dreams are scary! i get those and i hate them...they freak me out!

[lil'chefy]

One other thing I thought I would mention is that there are times when I feel also very dizzy right when I wake up and actually if I wake up too abruptly and get up, like to check on an upset child I pass out, and have done this a couple of times. It doesn't happen often but has happened a couple of times.

Wow, this happens to me to! Do you think it is celiac related? Or a hypothyroid issue? What is your blood pressure like?

[Marilyn R]

I don't know if this will help you or not, but some people with mild sleep apnea benefit from sleeping in an XL tee shirt with 3 tennis balls sewn down the back. You stick a ball in an athletic sock, stich it up, and repeat twice (at intervals) , then sew the sock onto the back of a tee shirt. I'm not even close to being Betty Crocker, but I made one of those. (Hand stitched.)

I looked for a link and found this U Tube thing.

It's a sales pitch but it explains the reason, and gives you something to go on.

Dr's used to recommend sewing them vertically, it looks like this guy prefers horizontal, and coozie cups or cut up noodles vs. tennis balls.

The tennis balls are to prevent you from sleeping on your back so that your airways aren't as restricted by your uvula. (I probably didn't spell that correctly.) Anyway, that might be worth a try before you have to pay out of pocket for a CPAP or oxygen. If you qualified for insurance, I'm pretty sure your doctor would have ordered it. That doesn't mean that you don't have a sleep problem, just that insurance probably won't cover it.

Let us know if you give it a whirl how it turns out!

[GottaSki]

I don't know if this will help you or not, but some people with mild sleep apnea benefit from sleeping in an XL tee shirt with 3 tennis balls sewn down the back. You stick a ball in an athletic sock, stich it up, and repeat twice (at intervals) , then sew the sock onto the back of a tee shirt. I'm not even close to being Betty Crocker, but I made one of those. (Hand stitched.)

I looked for a link and found this U Tube thing.

It's a sales pitch but it explains the reason, and gives you something to go on.

Dr's used to recommend sewing them vertically, it looks like this guy prefers horizontal, and coozie cups or cut up noodles vs. tennis balls.

The tennis balls are to prevent you from sleeping on your back so that your airways aren't as restricted by your uvula. (I probably didn't spell that correctly.) Anyway, that might be worth a try before you have to pay out of pocket for a CPAP or oxygen. If you qualified for insurance, I'm pretty sure your doctor would have ordered it. That doesn't mean that you don't have a sleep problem, just that insurance probably won't cover it.

Let us know if you give it a whirl how it turns out!

This is a fantastic idea!

[Marilyn R]

I think using it a couple of weeks are enough to train youself to sleep on your side.

The other thing I thought of is getting a copy of your sleep study analysis.

If you live in the US, you qualify for oxygen if you spend 30 minutes or more under 88% oxygen saturation. Most insurance companies honor that. It would be good to know how many desaturation events you had, and how long the study was for.

Sometimes doctors miss things.

[Dugudugu]

They had to put the settings to 23/18 in order to accomplish saturation to their satisfaction during my sleep study. The day following I vomited and had diarrhea most of the day - haven't been that sick in a long time, even with gluten. So I was definitely not interested in pursuing that avenue of unwellbeing. They took my blood gases before the study, but they should have taken them after the study.

The pressures are HUGE! Bloodgasses are needed before therapy, and yes, also after a night's sleep. I only have a few clients with pressures like these. Its tough for them to be compliant. Again, I am happy for you the oxygen-solution will do.